Today I spent some time in a grocery store observing customer's behaviors and how they communicate and interact with other people in the store. A grocery store is place where people come to find what they need, buy what they need, and leave. This is not a place where people hang out and socialize with their friends. As I walked around making notes of the ways people communicate, I quickly realize that no one was talking to other customers. When I saw communication happening, it was often between a customer and an employee asking questions. This most often happened in the deli and bakery area where customers can order food such as deli meat, potatoes salads, and donuts. The interactions would last as long as it took for the customer to make an order and the employee to prepare that order. Customers who were with other people talked about what items they should get, telling one another to go get this or that. When customers were shopping solo, they often referred to a list of items to buy. Other than these communication interactions, there were no conversations about that big party last night, or so-and-so who did such-and-such. Communication is minimal in a grocery store, and very task oriented. A friend of mine happened to be there with his brother who has autism but is a very talkative person. As I watched from a distance, he would approach the employees and talk to them in a loud voice and have conversations with them. This is uncommon in a grocery store--talking loud and greeting everyone you walk by with a handshake. As I stated earlier, communication in a grocery store is usually minimal and task oriented--especially at the time I was there in the morning.
The way people move around and their behaviors in a grocery store are low-key and focused. Customers enter and are given the option right away for a cart of a basket for their groceries. Customers walk in and choose one or the other instantly and appear to be focused on finding what they need, no time for dilly-dallying. The first section customers are guided to is the produce section. Here you will find a variety of fresh produce and salad dressings--all the healthy stuff. It seems like grocery stores set this up purposely to get their customers to fill their carts with the important healthy stuff first. When choosing your produce, there are plastic bags for customers to place their fresh produce in to keep them fresh. I notice a lady picking out peppers and placing them in her basket, forgoing the plastic bags. As I watched this, I thought to myself how unsanitary that must be to place your produce in the basket. How often do those baskets get cleaned? As she placed the pepper in her basket, I then noticed her broccoli and tomatoes were also not in plastic bags. These plastic bags are here if the customer wants to use them, they are not required to use. However, it seems to me that this is an unwritten rule that keeps the customers safe from bacterial diseases that may linger on those baskets or in the carts.
Grocery stores are set up in a variety of different ways. In America, most grocery stores are set up in similar ways--produce in one section, the frozen section, the pantry items section, and dairy, cleaning supplies and so on. Having experience in traveling to various countries, I have had the opportunity to grocery shop in countries in Europe and in the Caribbean/Central America. As an outsider, you will find yourself taking your time to find certain things and watching others to see how others shop--looking for certain "rules" to follow. The rules to follow in this particular grocery store seem to be similar among everyone who was shopping, but do you think these rules would differ depending on where you are? Would grocery shopping here differ from grocery shopping in California or in China or Australia? If so, how?
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When I was living and traveling in Europe, I discovered that the social "rules" of grocery shopping can vary greatly from culture to culture. In many European countries, large grocery stores do not exist, and people shop at small specialty stores instead (baker, butcher, etc). When you enter the store, you are expected to greet and make small talk with the shopkeeper. Also, in many places the customer is not allowed to handle produce; you must ask a clerk to select it for you. In other places, prices are negotiable and bartering is expected. Grocery shopping remains a task-oriented event, but the specifics definitely vary from country to country.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experiences, American grocery store rules goes outside of America. As you already know, I am Japanese, and I have been some Asian countries and Australia. In Japan, most of the grocery stores have same rules as American's, and products are placed section by section. Also, I remember some other Asian countries such as South Korea, and Thailand, and Australia's grocery stores followed the same rules. Of cause, this is my personal view and I do not say every grocery stores in these countries follow this rule. By the way, have you ever try bucket ice cream? I think that is a symbol of America!
ReplyDeleteI have not been out of the country so I don't have any experience being in a place that doesn't speak English. I think that if I were in a different country I wouldn't be able to just keep to myself and get my things and go. i would have to ask for help in finding what i need and also (if it were in a different language) asking what the lable said. i think that to the people that live there all the time would look at me and assume that i had no idea what i was doing or know that i wasn't familiar with there ways.
ReplyDeleteMy father used to do his grocery shopping every Saturday morning about 7:00am. He would find the same individuals there at the same time as he was, week after week. I remember him making an observation once that I'll never forget. There is a flow that happens in the store. People generally start in produce and move in the same direction in certain aisles. Since then I'm continually reminded of that as I move through the dairy aisle at Cub Foods. It's very uncommon to find anyone moving against the current so to speak when it comes to that aisle. The times when I've need to go back to that aisle and am heading in the opposite direction as everyone else I often feel as though I'm breaking the rules of the aisle. I find this to also be the case at Sam's club. The two main aisles have a direction and if you move against it you tend to get in people's way. I do believe that our American stores have designed these stores to encourage an efficient shopping experience because the faster you're in and out, the more likely you are to have a good experience and will come back again. Can you imagine what it would be like to try and navigate through a store that wasn't designed for efficiency?
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